Little League rule change impacts locals

Saturday

Apr 12, 2014 at 7:49 PMApr 12, 2014 at 7:49 PM

By Brett Poirierbpoirier@norwichbulletin.com

The Little League International Congress made a significant rule change last weekend in Minneapolis that won’t only impact future Little League World Series play in South Williamsport, Pa., but also local leagues in Eastern Connecticut.

Beginning in 2018, the date to determine a player’s Little League age will be changed to Dec. 31. The current deciding date is April 30, meaning players who turn 13 years old after that date are eligible to play in the Majors division (ages 11-12) that takes over South Williamsport each summer.

The ruling, originally proposed to begin in 2015, also means that the 13-year-olds who once spent their summers playing in the Majors, will now have to play at the Intermediate (ages 11-13) or Junior levels (ages 13-14). The ruling could boost Little League’s Intermediate division, which since being introduced in 2012, hasn’t caught on in Connecticut.

Slow growth

Only three of the state’s 11 districts in 2013 sent an Intermediate team to the state tournament. The division was designed to be a stepping stone for players who used to have to transition from Little League fields (46 feet to mound, 60 feet between bases) to Junior League fields (60 feet to mound, 90 feet between bases). Intermediate baseball fields (50 feet to mound, 70 feet between bases) are supposed to make that next step a little easier.

“I think it’s important for the development of the kids because right now what happens when kids go from playing 60-foot basepaths and 45-foot pitchers’ mounds to 90-foot base paths and 60-foot mounds, it’s a huge jump for some of these kids,” Killingly president Norm Thibault said.

The problem plaguing the Intermediate division is the lack of fields that size, especially in Eastern Connecticut.

“Hardly anybody has them,” District 11 and 12 (Norwich to Thompson) administrator Brian Hanlon said. “I think Coventry is the only one in our two districts that has them.”

District 10, which runs from Bozrah to the shoreline, isn’t much different.

“We have some fields available, but none of the leagues have opted to go that road yet,” District 10 administrator Jeff Pierce said. “At the (Little League) Congress, I talked to people from the other end of the country, and in some areas, it has taken over the Little League. The (Intermediate Division) took off immediately. People really like it.”

District 9 administrator Kyle Muncy said even if participation isn’t where he would like it to be in Intermediate play, it is providing players who might be thinking about bolting to AAU an alternative. With the Majors rule change, more players will be looking at it as an option. There aren’t any trips to South Williamsport or ESPN cameras in the Intermediate Division, though, and no guarantee that if more fields are built that the division will catch on.

“It is the argument that many, many Little Leagues across the state are having,” Muncy said. “Many boards are sitting down and going, ‘what should we do?’ Every 11-12-year-old baseball player and softball player in this state has a chance to win a national championship and a world championship, and that’s pretty cool.”